Newsletter

Interest in fine craft brew beers growing in Texas

BUNA — For some, driving an hour to finally arrive at a tiny, obscure brewery in the Piney Woods only enhances the experience of savoring a fine craft brew beer or ale.

Beaumont residents Colleen and Michael Brooks are clearly this breed of beer lover.

With young son in tow, the couple was among an unexpectedly large crowd who dropped in for the Texas Big Beer Brewery grand opening earlier this month in Newton County near Buna.

“We like to support local businesses,” Michael Brooks said. “We are highly supportive of that.”

They found their support well repaid with the quality of beer and ale on tap at the event.

“I like it,” Brooks said, taking a sip from his glass. “It’s very good tasting.”

Proprietors John and Tammy McKissack of Vidor were pleasantly surprised by the turnout.

“We had no idea,” he said of the high attendance, which he estimated at more than 100 people by 7 p.m. “We were hoping for maybe 50.”

It’s all part of an emerging interest in craft beers, said Alan Ward, a Pasadena brewer who showed up to pour some beer and support the McKissacks in their endeavor.

Ward, proprietor of Brigadoon Brewery, which plies its wares at the Renaissance Festival each year, said he brews beer and ale using methods and equipment used down through the ages.

He and McKissack are part of a close-knit brotherhood of a “very, very friendly, small” craft brewing industry.

But although the industry is small, interest in the product they produce is growing.

“So it’s a good time for beer in Texas,” Ward said.

John McKissack was bit by the home brew bug about 10 years ago, and at that time he had no idea how far it would take him.

“I just went extreme on home brewing in every aspect,” he said. “I just wanted to see if I could make my own beer.”

He honed his craft so well, he began winning competitions.

“I thought I would be doing my day job until I was an old man,” he said. “I never had any intention of ever retiring.”

But all that changed after he was bit by the craft brewing bug.

“He retired, turned 50 and had the grand opening all in the same week!” Tammy McKissack said.

Of the obscure location, McKissack said he enjoys the “small town feeling” and is happy to be able to contribute to the Newton County tax base, rather than somewhere like Harris or Travis County, where his contribution would be a mere drop in the bucket.

“The more taxes we’re paying, the more beer we’re selling!” he said cheerfully.

At Saturday’s celebration, the Mckissacks introduced craft brew enthusiasts to Renaissance Cowboy, a Scotch ale, and Texas Crude, a robust porter. Both products will be available for retail in about three months.

Sarsaparilla and birch root beer were available for the younger set.

“We wanted to make it family friendly,” John said.

McKissack said his brews are currently available in stores in Beaumont, Orange, Port Neches, Groves, Bridge City, Silsbee and Gist.

“We only sell to people who ask for it,” he said. “We don’t have to do any marketing. We’re not like Budweiser, we’re not producing it by the truck load.”

MISSION — Hundreds of protesters wearing white and chanting in English and Spanish marched Saturday in Texas’ first major protest against a border wall, crossing the earthen Rio Grande levee where President Donald Trump’s administration wants to build part of the first phase.